Grammy winner and member of hip hop group, Outkast, Big Boi performs at the Program Council’s Code Red concert last Thursday evening at Doak Walker plaza. (Michael Danser/ The Daily Campus )

University Park Police shut down Program Council’s “Code Red Concert” early last Thursday due to noise complaints. 

According to UPPD Administrative Captain, Leon Holman, a total of 22 complaints from UP residents were received from “as far west as Preston and from Mockingbird up to the other side of Lover’s Lane.”

Holman said that UPPD made two visits to the concert. The first was simply to ask that the music be turned down. Brooke Morin, PC’s concert chair, said, “We turned down the bass a lot and it sounded like we turned it down a significant amount.”

After receiving continued complaints even after the music was turned down, UPPD decided to shut the concert down completely.

“I saw them rush the stage, and then it was just over,” Morin said.

Morin said that because last year’s concert was a success without complaints from nearby residents, Program Council did not alert University Park that the concert would be occurring.

“Being at the opposite end of campus, it didn’t seem like it would be a problem,” Morin said. “We didn’t look up noise regulations. Last year we did the same thing and had no problem, we just did the same thing we’ve been doing and it turned out differently.”
Program Council did alert local Highland Park residents in the closest proximity to the concert. According to HP Community Relations Officer Marty Nevel, no complaints were received from HP residents. 

However, SMU is not in the jurisdiction of Highland Park, so even if residents did complain they could not have shut down the concert, said Nevel.
PC president Ryan Moore said that he felt that Morin made no mistakes in planning the concert.

“I think that Brooke did everything that she should have done to prepare for the concert,” Moore said.”The sound went further than we anticipated, and its standard procedure to notify those that live around us.”

The concert location was changed less than 24 hours before the concert was set to begin, said Morin, which complicated many of their plans.

The stage was originally set up at the head of Doak Walker plaza alongside Dedman Recreation Center, but the fire department complained about the location and it had to be moved to the final position shortly before the concert began.

“Maybe if it had been in the original location there wouldn’t have been a problem,” Morin said. “The sound would have been pumped out towards fraternity row instead, and not the direction it ended up going.”

Moore said that due to the problems that occurred this year, Program Council will most likely hold the concert indoors in the future. “Brooke always wanted it to be outdoors because it is a more fun, collegiate atmosphere,” Moore said, “But it’s not worth what happened this year.”